So, congratulations! Perhaps you're the owner of a new iPad this holiday season. If so, you've come to the right place. The iPad isn't that hard to set up, but getting to know its extra settings, and discovering what apps are available that can transform your experiences with it, can take some serious time investment.

Some of these suggestions may be obvious; others might not. Regardless, here are the first things what I do when I take a new iPad out of its crisp white box before I put it through its paces for a review. I think you should do the same. At the least, these tips should help you get on your feet.

By the way, none of this involves ever connecting to a PC or Mac to sync. In fact, I'm going to encourage you to live as sync-free as possible to save a little sanity and have a little more fun.

(Editor's note: updated in light of this year's iPads, new apps, and new iOS 7 features.)
Sarah Tew/CNET

1. Restore your old backup if you have one, and get to know iCloud. If this is your first iPad, you have nothing to restore. But, if you have an iPad already and are upgrading, you can get your basic settings and saved data on your new iPad by restoring from a backup on iTunes, or wirelessly via iCloud if you've already set that up. The initial set-up screens you see when you start your iPad for the first time ask if you're restoring from a backup. Be prepared to pick the right answer, but don't worry if you accidentally forget to do it properly: you can always erase all content in settings and begin the initial set-up process again later on.

If this is your first iPad but you already have an iPhone or a Mac, iCloud will help ease the pain a bit. Apple's connected cloud services, known as iCloud, have gotten a fair amount of criticism because they're often finicky and don't offer a lot of deep user control, but iCloud's still a pretty essential set of services. You use your existing Apple ID for syncing contacts, cloud-stored documents, mail, calendars, Safari bookmarks, photos in Photo Stream, and notes taken on the built-in Notes app. You'll also receive FaceTime calls and iMessages via that same Apple ID, but you set up both (and deactivate both) via separate app settings. And, of course, your Apple ID connects your already-purchased iTunes and App Store content. But, you can use a different Apple ID if you're sharing, say, a family member's iTunes account: just enter that different ID into iTunes or the App Store, and you can still keep a separate iCloud ID for everything else.

And I always keep "Find my iPad" turned on. That's the way you insure you can find your device if you lose it in your apartment or elsewhere. Download Apple's "Find my iPhone" app and you can ping any of your devices, remotely wipe them, or send an alert sound. Of course, your iPad needs to be on an available network. This has helped me on many, many occasions.
Sarah Tew/CNET

2. Get your free iWork and iLife apps. iPhone, iPod and iPad buyers now get a suite of Apple productivity and media-creation apps for free that used to collectively cost a fair amount of money. Definitely download these -- in fact, when you're setting up your iPad for the first time, you're prompted to begin downloading all the free Apple-created software. All the apps are universal, so if you got them already by buying a new iPhone, you'll be able to redownload the iPad versions for free via your Already Purchased apps on the App Store if you bought a used iPad. Pages, Numbers and Keynote are very good word processing, spreadsheet and presentation-creation apps, and they even sync via iCloud and to Macs that own these apps in OSX Mavericks. There's no reason not to use them. iPhoto, iMovie and GarageBand are similarly good photo editing, video editing and music creation tools. Other apps match the features of iPhoto, but few solutions out there can beat iMovie or GarageBand. All of these have been graphically redesigned for iOS 7.
Newsstand: good for finding digital versions of publications you already subscribe to.
Sarah Tew/CNET

3. Find your other free(ish) stuff. I bet you have plenty of grandfathered-in "free" content that's ready to go on your iPad -- free because you already paid for it elsewhere. First, go to your iTunes or App Store apps and browse under "purchased" (it's usually hidden away under the "More" tab, or it's under "Updates" in the App Store). It's an ugly way to browse what you've already bought, but make sure you stock up on any iPhone apps you already own that are universal for iPad, and in iTunes download music, movies, and books you already have.

And there's more. You don't have to pay for much, if you're smart. Newspapers, magazines, cable TV subscriptions, and pay TV channels like HBO often have apps providing extra free content. Link your subscriptions via e-mail addresses and passwords from those sites and publications and you'll be good to go. They're no-cost-added for you if you already pay for them, and they're great ways to get content on your iPad immediately.
Sarah Tew/CNET

Finally, there are always the truly free apps, especially around the holidays. Browse Apple's Top Free Apps list in the App Store for newcomers, and follow Web sites (like CNET) for news on notable releases, which usually come unannounced and, sadly, for a limited time...at least, for the good stuff. Read our best free iPad games list for some suggestions. When it comes to apps that aren't games, many of the best are free to download: Twitter, Facebook, Flipboard, Netflix, the Kindle App, and
Google Drive: getting better every day.
Sarah Tew/CNET

4. Pick your cloud to live in. Apple has a variety of iCloud services, including iTunes Match for storing and streaming all your music on the go, but that's not the only way you can set up your iPad. Thanks to Google's excellent apps, you could live off Gmail, Google Docs, and lots of other Google services instead -- Chrome, Gmail, Google Drive, Google Maps, YouTube, and Google Play Music (available as an iPhone app, but it plays on the iPad) make this easy. Or, you could store and stream your music and videos via Amazon Cloud Player and Amazon Instant Video. Either way, I'd seriously recommend you rely on cloud storage as much as possible, because syncing videos, music, and other files via your computer is a pain.

And when it comes to getting PDFs, EPUBs, and other files on your iPad, I suggest e-mailing them to yourself. You can open them up and save them to an app directly from Mail, and it saves a sync. They open up in many apps, including iBooks, the Kindle app, and PDF-specific apps like GoodReader -- just click "Open in" when you're reading the PDF and pick your compatible app. Alternatively, you could upload them to services like Dropbox, which works with many iOS apps already.

Sarah Tew/CNET

5. Add Twitter/Facebook. Ever since iOS 6, you can bake in your Twitter and Facebook log-in so that you can share directly from your Camera Roll, or post links that you link directly from Safari. Twitter and Facebook are the social networks to fill the gap that Apple, unlike Google, doesn't natively provide. Go to Settings and look for the separate listings for Facebook and Twitter, and enter your info. Downloading any related apps will usually automatically log you in, too. But a word of advice: deactivate the "Contacts" and "Calendar" syncing with Facebook, otherwise your appointments and address info will suddenly become Facebook-ified with events and people you may not want on your phone. It's easily undone by unchecking these boxes at any time.

6. Tweak your notifications and privacy. Every app likes to scream out all its information all the time via banners and other annoying pop-ups on your home screen. You can override this by going to Notifications and unchecking all the various notifications options. There are many, but I'd suggest removing them all for apps you don't consider essential. Make sure banners are off and the notifications don't appear in the lock screen, and you should find yourself less pestered. Similarly, make sure you examine your Privacy settings, and deactivate (or activate) any location or information sharing you'd like on certain apps. You may not want your photos to be geotagged on social networks.

7. Make folders. Until there's a better way to organize apps on iOS, folders are there for you. You can drag over a hundred apps into a single folder in iOS 7, which at least means fewer folders cluttering the screen. Name them after categories you use a lot (Video, Games, Writing), or by user (Son, Wife, Mom). Properly named, folders can help you feel less cluttered.
Sarah Tew/CNET

8. Switch the side toggle to "lock rotation." iOS offers two ways to use the button next to the volume rocker on iPads: as a mute button (similar to the iPhone), and to lock rotation. Mute makes little sense, since your iPad probably won't ring and there's no vibrate mode (just enable Sound Effects settings and lower the volume to zero, and it does the same thing). Instead, use it lock into horizontal or vertical modes when reading. That way, when you're lounging on a bed with a good e-book, it won't suddenly flip sideways when you do. It doesn't matter as much now, because whatever one you didn't choose is instantly available to tap in iOS 7's new pull-up Control Panel.

9. Get a few good apps. There are tons of options, obviously, and tons of use cases, but I like the Kindle App for e-reading, Flipboard for news, YouTube/Netflix/Hulu Plus, Pages for writing, Google Maps as a must-have Apple Maps replacement, Evernote for general note-taking, and Plants vs. Zombies, Ticket to Ride, and Angry Birds Space as must-have first-day games (read our must-have games list for more ideas). Even better, ask friends who use an iPad what they're using.
The Tom Bihn Ristretto for iPad, and the Pen & Quill case for iPad Mini.
Sarah Tew/CNET

10. Get a good case. Or a bag. The iPad just comes with a Lightning cable for syncing and charging, nothing more. You need some sort of protection. Apple's own Smart Cover is a clever multi-use accessory that protects the screen, but not the back. If you're getting an Apple-made accessory, I prefer the new leather Smart Case, but it's more expensive. If you're a large-iPad owner, consider something that docks easily with a keyboard -- check out some keyboard cases here. For the Mini, a booklike folio cover feels best. And don't go overboard with specialty bags; something with separate pockets and padding and can still hold other stuff works best. Read my advice on that from a year ago, most of which still holds true now.

Do you have any other first-day tips or suggestions I missed? Share them below.

More Information

The Bottom Line: If you want the full, polished Apple tablet experience in a smaller package, the iPad Mini is worth the premium price. Otherwise, good alternatives are available for less money.Read full review

About the author

Scott Stein is a senior editor covering iOS and laptop reviews, mobile computing, video games, and tech culture. He has previously written for both mainstream and technology enthusiast publications including Wired, Esquire.com, Men's Journal, and Maxim, and regularly appears on TV and radio talking tech trends.
See full bio